UNFPA IN THE NEWS – JULY 12-18, 2004

GLOBAL: CNN, ABC and AIDS

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported July 21 on the "CNN versus ABC” debate at the 15th International AIDS Conference held in Bangkok, and the acronyms stood for "Condoms, Needle Exchange and Negotiating Skills" versus "Abstinence, Being Faithful, Condoms.” The story mentioned that on the CNN side was Dr. Stephen Sindling, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. From the very beginning of his speech, Sindling said he was not opposed to ABC. What he did object to was "ABC as it has been perverted by the religious reactionaries who wield such strong influence, especially within the Bush administration and in the Vatican ." Sindling was referring to programs that talk only of abstinence and, worse, which spread lies about condoms being ineffective in blocking HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Citing a recently released position paper from the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and the UNFPA, Sindling noted: "The male latex condom is the single most efficient available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections."

BANGLADESH: Social and Political Empowerment for Women

The Daily News (Bangladesh) reported July 23 that Sultan A Aziz, Director of United Nations Population Fund's Asia and the Pacific division, said, "We have to give some realistic thoughts to empowering women, not only their social empowerment but political empowerment too." Aziz, now on a visit to Bangladesh to attend a UNFPA regional conference, commended the initiatives in Bangladesh to control population. But she noted there are some persistent issues that need to be addressed - one is violence against women and the other is a high maternal mortality rate. Read: Daily Star

DR CONGO: Maternal Mortality in Mbuji-Mayi

Panafrican News Agency reported July 20 that a s much as 60 percent of women die while giving birth in Mbuji-Mayi, capital of Eastern Kasai in DR Congo, the UN Population Fund announced on the occasion of World Population Day. In the light of the stunning mortality rate Eastern Kasai officials, policymakers and health authorities pledged to address the trend compounded by the spread of HIV/AIDS. They also urged family planning and sex education for young girls.

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand Needs to Provide Greater Aid Commitment

New Zealand Press Association reported July 23 that the head of UNICEF 's HIV/AIDS program, Peter McDermott, has urged New Zealand to boost its overseas assistance to fight the impending threat of an AIDS epidemic in Pacific nations. The story noted that this financial year NZAID will provide annual funding to the United Nations Population Fund and to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, both of which are involved with developing sexual and reproductive health policies and programs in the Pacific. Read: New Zealand Press Association

PAKISTAN: Violence against Women

The Daily Times (Pakistan) ran a July 20 op ed by Syed Mohammad Ali, researcher in the development sector, that noted that UNFPA statistics rank Bangladeshi women as being the most battered in the world, estimating that 47 percent have suffered from different types of assault. Bangladesh is followed closely by India where 40 percent of women were assaulted. Read: Daily Times

SRI LANKA: Journalist Wins Award

The Daily News (Sri Lanka) reported July 20 that the Health Education Bureau of the Health Ministry sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund awarded Champika Deepani Ranasinghe, a senior journalist with the Tharunee women's weekly of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., a reproductive health journalist award for her contribution to the development of reproductive health in Sri Lanka that coincided with the World Population Day. Read: Daily News

SWITZERLAND: Promoting Cultural Understanding in Development Activities

Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) reported July 22 that Barbara Affolter, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, said, “Everyone who works in the field of development aid has to know the rules of successful communication with people from other cultures.” The story mentioned that the government agency is supporting a United Nations Population Fund program, which aims to promote cultural understanding in development activities. Read: Neue Zürcher Zeitung

UNITED STATES: News on U.S. Decision to Withhold UNFPA Funding

Numerous media outlets covered the U.S. decision to withhold UNFPA funding. The New York Times reported July 17 that the Bush administration will withhold funds from the United Nations population agency for the third year in a row because the agency cooperates with activities in China that promote abortion, the State Department said. Sarah Craven , the chief of the agency ' s Washington office, said the administration ' s contention that the agency indirectly supported China ' s coercive policies was "false and absolutely baseless." Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in Asia will be deprived of potentially life-saving help, she said. "This is very troubling," Craven said. The agency "does not, has not and will never support coercive activity of any kind." Read coverage from other outlet: New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Voice of America, BBC News, Women’s Enews

India: The Hindu (India) reported July 18 that India is one of the largest beneficiaries of the UNFPA funding for reproductive health. It is assigned $75 million over five years from 2003 to 2007 for its population programs. Reacting to the U.S. government ' s move, the Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, A.R. Nanda, said the cuts would hit the population program with funding from the U.S. already dwindling. “The reduction in U.S. assistance to the UNFPA will affect Asian and African countries which are struggling to improve women ' s health.” Read: The Hindu

UNITED STATES: UN Chief Criticizes U.S. for Withholding Population Funding

Xinhua General News Service reported July 21 that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the U.S. administration for its decision to continue withholding $34 million Congress approved for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). At a press conference, Annan said the UN agency is doing "very essential work on reproductive health" and one of its major tasks is to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is "producing so many orphans. This (fighting AIDS) is an area where UNFPA is doing very good work with mothers, with communities and societies, and really needs help." Read: Associated Press, Reuters

UNITED STATES: Editorials and Opinions Criticizing U.S. Decision to Withhold UNFPA Funding

Editorial coverage took a strong stand in support of funding UNFPA. The Sarasota Herald Tribune (USA) July 19 editorial condemned: “The only bright spot in Friday's news is that the $34 million will still go toward the cause of global reproductive health—to which the U.S. government contributes almost half a billion dollars a year, according to the State Department. The Bush administration injures that cause, however, when it publicly denigrates the UNFPA in order to serve the White House's anti-abortion agenda. The widely respected UNFPA provides contraception, reproductive and maternal health programs. The agency deserves support, if not from President Bush, then from everyday Americans who know a good cause when they see one.” Read: The Sarasota Herald Tribune

The St. Petersburg Times (USA) July 19 editorial noted: “The actions exhibit a deep-seated hostility toward women ' s reproductive freedom. The administration has made it clear that it not only opposes abortion but contraception as well, as evidenced by its exclusive promotion of abstinence-only sex education. The losers, of course, are the women in desperately poor and isolated regions who rely on the UNFPA and similar programs as a lifeline - as the only way to obtain the information and resources that allow them to limit the size of their families and avoid sexually transmitted disease. Many lives have been bettered by the work of the UNFPA, but that is apparently irrelevant to the Bush administration and the right-wing zealots it so faithfully represents.” Read: St. Petersburg Times

The Detroit Free Press (USA) July 20 editorial noted: “More important, UNFPA brings health care to women in areas where clinics, much less hospitals, are scarce. It also arms women with information that protects them from getting or spreading HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS and is ravaging Africa and taking an ever greater hold in Asia . Bush has claimed to champion the AIDS fight, but cutting this money—now $93 million over three years—sets it back. All for a disingenuous victory in domestic abortion politics.” Read: Detroit Free Press

The Star-Telegram (USA) July 20 editorial noted: “One of President Bush's core beliefs is that abortion is wrong, and whether you agree or not, that position sets well with the president's conservative base. The president, however, is wrong to withdraw U.S. support on those grounds from family planning programs sponsored by the United Nations.” Read: The Star Telegram

The Lexington Herald (USA) July 22 editorial concluded: “As it stands now, women across the world will continue to endure little control over their sexual and reproductive lives, poor or non-existent pre- and post-natal care, and the looming threat of HIV/AIDS. What a wasted opportunity.” Read: Lexington Herald

The Times Herald Record (USA) July 21 editorial noted: “These are the actions of a White House that allows its narrow definition of ‘family values’ to drive its domestic and foreign policy decisions far too often. That approach may help the president guarantee votes he already has at home, but it bespeaks a lack of vision and leadership in the world community.” Read: The Times Herald Record

The Philadelphia Daily News (USA) July 20 editorial noted: “What are a few million deaths of women and children in poor countries when there's a conservative base in the United States to shore up? If that sounds harsh, so is the Bush administration's blocking - for the third straight year - money appropriated by Congress for the United Nations Population Fund, known as UNFPA. The Fund provides health and family planning assistance in 141 countries.” The editorial concluded: “Of course, the families of these victims can't vote in U.S. elections. Defeating George W. Bush - and electing John F. Kerry president - will end the reign of extremists over American aid to women and children. And that will begin to salvage our now-tarnished reputation as a generous and compassionate nation.” Read: The Philadelphia Daily News

The Wichita Eagle (USA) July 21 editorial noted, “Apparently, the administration cares more about appearing to oppose abortion than actually helping save lives.” Read: Wichita Eagle

The Miami Herald (USA) July 23 editorial noted: “ China's coercive family-planning tactics should be repudiated. But the president's decision hurts families in great need while leaving China, the intended target, virtually unscathed.” Read: Miami Herald

The Asheville Citizen-Times (USA) July 21 editorial noted: “Currently, U.S. population policy is politics and little more. Its focus seems to dwell on hot-button issues like abortion and abstinence. That stance gets votes but doesn't recognize some salient realities, such as providing family planning is a necessity, not a nicety, at a time when about 1 billion children across the world are entering puberty.” Read: Asheville Citizen-Times

The Pocono Record (USA) July 21 editorial noted: "UNFPA officials estimate the funding could actually have prevented nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000 infant and child deaths. Withholding the funds is decidedly NOT pro-life. Again, ideologues reign. And the world suffers." Read: Pocono Record

The Courier-Journal (USA) July 17 editorial noted: “As if to underscore that unwillingness, the administration chose Friday, the day the AIDS conference ended, to announce that it will again withhold congressionally approved funding of $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund because of the discredited objections that the fund abets forced abortions in China. The U.S. president should be leading the global crusade for sexual health, not letting domestic politics impede it.” Read: Courier-Journal

In her July 21 column, syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer of Universal Press Syndicate wrote: “In fact, all the data—including the observations of the Western embassies in Beijing —show that the work of the U.N. complements voluntarism. The critics of such desirable development, who are backing the administration's obdurateness in looking at how a country really changes - be they conservative Catholics or fundamentalists, should take a serious look at this country. Instead of encouraging healthy change, they are discouraging it.” Read: Universal Press Syndicate

The Pioneer Press (USA) ran a July 20 op ed by Anika Rahman, president of the U.S. Committee for the U.N. Population Fund, noting, “ The Bush administration ' s decision to block funding of the U.N. Population Fund for the third year is disappointing and shortsighted.” She concluded, “It is in America's interest, the interest of women and the interest of peace to participate in the U.N. Population Fund.” Read: Pioneer Press

In a July 21 letter that ran in The Journal (USA), reader, Nancy Kraus wrote, “ Last week, the Bush administration announced its decision to again deny lifesaving funding for the United Nations Population Fund. If there was ever any doubt that this administration cares more about its ultra-conservative political base than about the health and dignity of women, it is gone now.” She concluded, “It is time for our elected officials to stop playing politics and start saving lives.”

The Sarasota Herald Tribune (USA) ran a July 21 letter by Kathleen Richardson in response to an earlier editorial that criticized, “I think it's inappropriate that a Herald-Tribune editorial suggests to its readers that they contribute money to the United Nations Population Fund.” Read: Sarasota Herald Tribune

UNITED STATES: UNFPA Funding Decision Could Affect November Election

The Los Angeles Times (CA) July 17 story on the Bush administration courting its conservative base for the presidential election mentioned that a mong other actions that could bring social conservatives to the polls, Bush has signed into law a ban on one type of late-term abortion procedure. On July 16, the administration announced that for the third year in a row, it would not pay dues to the United Nations Population Fund because U.S. officials said the fund indirectly supported Chinese government programs that force abortions. Read: Los Angeles Times

UNITED STATES: 34 Million Friends for UNFPA

ABC News - World News Tonight ran a segment on the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA campaign to coincide the U.S. decision to withhold funding for UNFPA. World News Tonight host, Bob Woodruff opened the segment saying: “ When New Mexico attorney Lois Abraham heard the news, she was angry. In California, retired French teacher Jane Roberts was angry, too. What made them angry was the decision by the Bush Administration to pull the funding for the United Nations Population Fund, the UNFPA, which provides health care and family planning to poor women around the world.” In the segment, Roberts said, holding a safe motherhood birthing kit, “UNFPA distributes these in remote villages where there are no trained midwives, no trained doctors. It consists of a sterile plastic sheet, a bar of soap, a razor blade to cut the umbilical cord and string to tie it off. And it saves thousands and thousand of lives every year. Basic health care, just basic stuff.” Abraham added, “These are activities which fill needs, real needs that most Americans can't even understand because we are so fortunate.”

UNITED STATES: Coalition to Make the U.S. a Better Member of the International Community

OneWorld.net reported July 21 that a coalition of 40 feminist, human rights, and development groups, called the "Million Women Challenge," has launched a campaign to challenge elected officials and political candidates on their positions on a range of international issues of special interest to women and children, according to the Women's Edge Coalition which includes Amnesty International, Save the Children, CARE, and the American Association of University Women among other groups. The story mentioned: “More should also be done to improve the health status of girls and women, according to the Coalition, which put special emphasis on support for such multilateral programs as the U.N. Population Fund, which specializes in providing technical assistance and funding for reproductive-health programs in poor countries. The Bush administration has cut all U.S. funding to UNFPA, as well as to overseas non-governmental agencies that provide information about abortions or publicly support strict anti-abortion legislation, for the past three years.” Read: OneWorld.net

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